noun

• The nonviolent overthrow of a sovereign or government by senior officials within the ruling group.

  ‘Some writers prefer to set out a spectrum of revolutionary aims and outcomes, ranging from total social transformation to change of the ruling general or dictator - the so-called palace revolution.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Nobody pointed out that by this time, she was so widely unpopular, within months her own party would organise a palace coup to depose her.’
  • ‘The conclusion the opposition has reluctantly reached is that there is no way other than war to remove a tyrant whose five secret police forces make a palace coup or popular uprising impossible.’
  • ‘But, he suggested, ‘This is not about a palace coup or an uprising against the gray hairs, but a movement in an organization around a cause.’’
  • ‘It hoped for a neat palace coup not a revolution.’
  • ‘He was ousted by a palace revolution in February 1866, and the Romanians eventually secured their foreign prince.’
  • ‘And certainly, despite claims of a palace coup led by ambitious colleagues within the Parliament, it seems that the post is not exactly flush with possible candidates.’
  • ‘In Russian history, the only means of resisting the government had been by peasant insurrection or palace revolution by courtiers and soldiers, like the failed 1825 Decembrist rising by guards officers.’
  • ‘Especially when compared with modern revolutions, it seems rather to resemble a palace coup than a genuine shift of social or political power.’
  • ‘Five of its ten leaders died in office, three were removed by revolutions and one by a palace coup.’

  Synonyms

  seizure of power, coup, overthrow, takeover, ousting, deposition, regime change